Niagara Falls Reporter
Home | Archive / Search
DEC 17 - DEC 24, 2015

Black ECC Executive Files Discrimination Complaint Against School

By Tony Farina

DEC 17, 2015

With the first state audit of Erie Community College in 20 years due to be released shortly at a time when the institution is facing serious financial challenges, new legal concerns are emerging for President Jack Quinn and his administration in the form of a discrimination complaint filed with the state by the black former associate vice president for legal affairs, Marsha Jackson, who says she was discriminated against “on the basis of my race and color” and denied the opportunity to apply for a higher position.

Jackson, who has a Ph. D. from SUNY Buffalo in higher education administration retired from ECC in October where she was earning $98,000 a year with over 32 years in the higher education administration field.  She was first hired at ECC in December of 2000.

In her complaint filed with the State Division for Human Rights, Jackson said she was denied the opportunity to obtain the position of executive vice president of student affairs which was later filled by a lesser qualified person by appointment of Quinn, an appointment that was approved by the Board of Directors.

Jackson states in her complaint that “I and other African-Americans have complained about Mr. Quinn’s discriminatory hiring practices to the Board of Trustees, which is also aware of Mr. Quinn dispensing with customary search committees when hiring high-level Caucasians and is also aware of the contents of the ECC August, 2011 Diversity Plan, which it adopted on Aug. 31, 2011.  I therefore allege that ECC, through its Board of Trustees, has condoned, approved and ratified the discriminatory practices alleged herein.”

Steve Boyd, the chairman of the board, declined to comment on the complaint filed by Jackson. 

That’s not the only legal problem facing the college.  Last March, we reported that Eileen Flaherty, the former human resources commissioner at ECC, filed a federal human rights lawsuit that singles out Kristin Klein Wheaton--the executive vice president for legal affairs and Quinn’s top aide-- for age discrimination and retaliation before she was terminated by the administration without warning while on medical leave.

We have also learned this week that Wheaton and 20 or so other senior executive staff members were being considered for 2 percent raises by the board after the settlement of two major union contracts over the last several weeks although Boyd said the board has not moved forward with raises for the senior staff at this time.

In the face of surging health care costs and the growing fiscal crisis at ECC, buyouts have been offered to the senior staff, administrators union, and the Faculty Federation, offers which ended on Wednesday (Dec. 16).

Boyd said by text that 37 members of the Faculty Federation accepted the buyout offer.  The cost to ECC was $1,349,128 vs. a total yearly salary cost of $2,727,498.  Twelve members of the administrators union took buyouts, totaling $442,388 vs. the one-year salary total of $1,045,546.  The school had budgeted $200,000 for senior staff buyouts, but only one member took it, at a cost of $40,000 vs. a yearly salary of $107,000.

Erie County has only slightly increased its annual subsidy to ECC, leaving its contribution far below the 26.7 percent called for in the funding formula under state law for community colleges.  The school, under Quinn, has depleted the reserve fund and hiked tuition to keep the institution above water, but without a significant increase in county and state assistance, future tuition hikes and other emergency measures seem certain.   The findings of a recent state audit are expected to be released sometime next month.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poverty Industry Provides Growth Sector For Struggling Falls Economy
Dyster's Letter to Top City Employees Touches Off Fear And Paranoia For The Holidays
Religious Organization Takes Big Role In New Look Niagara Falls Economy
Reporter's Call For An Elected City Controller Meets With Rousing Support
Sex Offenders Drive Down Property Values, Quality of Life
We Told You So: Dyster Administration Was Engineered to Fail From the Start
Free Workshops for Families of Special Needs Children Offered
Housing Authority a Key Player in Commodification of Human Services
Is Poverty Industry Part of a True Growth Plan
Hard Ball Questions We Would Ask Dyster If He Appeared On Our Talk Show
Two Methadone Clinics to Address Rising Problem of Heroin Addiction
Elusive City Engineer Job Description Absent From City's Official Website
Is There a Conspiracy to Stop Kristen Grandinetti From Becoming Chairwoman?
King Con Shmuel Shmueli Learns New Trade: Stiffing Lawyers and Winning Through Losing --Lawsuits
Cult of NXIVM Series Part 5: Bronfman Sisters Join NXIVM and Lose Millions of Dollars
Cohen to Represent Mascia at Hearing
What America Desperately Needs: 1 - Religion Defined and 2 - Donald Trump as President
Enjoy The 'Time of Your Life' at Ricky's Nifty Fifty Pizza Junction 'Come In and Be Yourself', Says Ricky
McNall Will Be New Chairman Of Niagara Co. Legislature
New Bid Launched to Track State's Costs to Defend Canalside Suit
News of the Weird
Half-Court Basketball League Starting at Lockport YMCA
Thunder of Niagara Air Show wins coveted Dick Schram Memorial Community Relations Award for 2015
Black ECC Executive Files Discrimination Complaint Against School
Bills Season Pretty Much Over
City Hall Jokes
Your Weekly Horoscope

Contact Info

©2014 The Niagara Falls Reporter Inc.
POB 3083, Niagara Falls, N.Y. 14304
E-mail: info@niagarafallsreporter.com
Phone: (716) 284-5595

Publisher and Editor in Chief: Frank Parlato
Managing Editor: Dr. Chitra Selvaraj
Senior Editor: Tony Farina